The Magnolia Agency, an independent insurance agency based in Essex, Connecticut, has launched.

Founded by friends and industry veterans Lou Gold and Rich Varrato, and offering commercial and personal lines along with member owned group captives, Magnolia’s aim is to be a full-service agency.

The agency is set to focus initially on placing clients into group captives once the concept is fully understood by clients and deemed the right solution for a given prospect. If necessary, Magnolia will also help clients to get ‘captive-ready’.

‘It’s our goal to get our clients captive ready,’ explained Lou Gold, Magnolia co-founder. ‘It is our aim to get their company positioned well in the eyes of underwriting so that they can get into a captive, because we ultimately feel it’s the best product for our clients.’

Explaining the focus on group captives, co-founder Rich Varrato, said: ‘We think that that our business and service model is really geared towards the larger middle market accounts that fit [well] into a group captive.’

In a climate where M&A activity continues to trend and where, in some instances, clients can sometimes get lost in the swirl of being serviced by such large organisations, Magnolia Agency wanted to offer an alternative.

‘We wanted to start a firm that goes back to the basics and puts the client first,’ said Gold.